Technical SEO in plain English

Technical SEO has a problem: half the terms exist to impress the client, not to explain anything. Here we do the opposite — what each thing does, and whether it's worth your time.

Let's start with Core Web Vitals, the buzzword of the moment. Basically, they're three questions Google asks your site: does it load fast? Does it respond well when someone clicks or taps? Does the page jump around while loading, or stay put? If the answers are yes, yes and no, you're in good shape on that front. You don't need to memorize every metric's name — just know that a slow site sends visitors away long before Google gets a say.

Then there's the sitemap, which is more bark than bite. It's basically a map of your site's pages, handed straight to Google so it doesn't have to guess what exists. It helps, especially on big sites or ones that add pages often. On a small, well-structured site with good internal links between pages, the impact is subtler — but that's never a reason to say you don't need one.

Backlinks are the most overhyped — and worst explained — part of this whole conversation. A backlink is simply another site linking to yours. The logic: if trusted sites talk about you, Google trusts you more too. The problem is that backlinks were bought and sold for years, and Google learned to spot it — today, a couple of relevant mentions in a local directory, a news story or a business partner's site beats a bought list of a hundred irrelevant links.

For a local business or small company, what really makes the difference is usually far simpler than these three buzzwords combined: a well-filled Google Business profile, a site that loads fast on mobile, and content that directly answers what people search for in your area. Technical SEO is the foundation — without it, the rest can't hold the weight — but it's not where most local businesses win or lose the race.

If an SEO proposal spends more time explaining buzzwords than saying what it'll do for your business, you have your answer.